Communications

Processes

2008

THE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSES

INTRODUCTION

Communications always were in AIESEC an area without a clear structure of work, once it

was created more from one demand for support activities than from one planned process. Year by

year the area work is getting bigger and its relevance inside LC work also. Today is easy to see the

difference in the performance of the LCs who has a communication responsible and the ones who

didn’t.

This guide is a debriefing with short descriptions of the Spanish Communication Processes

Structure. The intention of it is just to present the Processes and let it open for discussions what kind

of activities an Ideal Communication area should delivery.

THE LOGIC OF THE FLOW

This flow is a graphic representation of how the processes could be delivered. It doesn’t mean that

you need to have the first activity in place in order to work in the next one, of course that if, aligned

with your LC demand, you can deliver the processes in their order it would be better, but in the end,

once you have made an accurate job, it will not affect the quality of your activities at all.

UNDERSTANDING EACH PROCESS

The description below gets the core activities of each process. Of course that there’s a deep

amount o activities that could be explored in each one of them and as communications responsible

its your responsibility to do this in the best way to support your LC performance.

Brand Management

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Internal Communication

Promotional Communication

Media Communication

COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSES

Communication Analyses

Before start to do anything you

need to know what is your current

situation. This is why communication

Analyses is a process so relevant. Of course

that this analyses is related to the level of

resources you have available and the focus

that you have in your LC in this moment. If

your demand for results is too urgent you

can’t invest time on deep communication

analyses once it take too long time from

your activities.

Thinking in a simple way Communication Analyses could be from one simple EB discussion

about the points below until a deep research with some consultancy support and Inputs of SGs.

The main Communications Analyses activities are:

Stakeholder* Analyses: Here you have to evaluate your relationship with each stakeholder and take

into consideration the changes each one of them had (or might have) in order to capitalize it as an

opportunity to become this relationship more valid for both sides. Example: One current LC TN taker

is implementing a CSR philosophy in its departments and your LC issue is CSR, so you can start to

plan PBoX with some external events and other activities to sell to them.

Self Analyses: You have to evaluate yourself, what kind of activity you’re good at, what is your main

weakness and strength, which risks you may pass by because of internal problems. All this processes

evaluation must have an impact direct (or if it is indirect, the connection must be really clear) with

internal or external communication. A point really relevant to be evaluated is the internal

communication flow and the knowledge management in the office. Other thing to take into

consideration is the national and the international initiatives that may appear.

Competitors Analyses: Here you need to identify your main competitors. In AIESEC is a little bit hard

to identify these competitors once our product is really unique. A good way to identify them is by

stakeholders focus. Example: for our relationship with students other organizations that offer

exchange opportunities could be seen as competitors, for our relationship with organizations, HR

Consultancy companies may be seen as competitors once it helps companies to recruit talented

people. The main point to be evaluated here is the Competitors positioning, their clear strengths and

weakness and their possible next steps. It is good also to evaluate their products in comparison with

ours.

Environment Analyses: In this point you have to research for any kind of opportunity in the

Environment that could leverage your communications efforts, and also the threats that may cause a

problem for them. Example: The government of your city decides to work with some theme as Local

focus which AIESEC is related, maybe with relationship with other key countries which AIESEC is in.

Or for example a new Dean in the University was elected and he don’t believe that student

organizations are good. In these point is also good to analyze the Local Media and the

Communication Plan

If you want to go somewhere in an

effective way the best way to not start to

running around like a random cockroach is

to plan what you going to do. A little bit

obvious no? So this is the Idea of building a

communication Plan. All you have to do is

get the inputs of the Communication

Analyses, define clear goals, have a lot of

ideas of how you going to reach it and

organize it in a timeline. A Communication

Plan could also be something really complex

or really simple, depend of your demand

and which level your activities are. The three

main components of the plan are:

Stakeholders Communication Plan: The Stakeholders Communication Plan could be integrated or

divide by each stakeholder. Here you have to plan how to approach your stakeholders in the better

way and how to keep continuously communication with them in order to don’t be forgotten.

Example: Events for Companies, Newsletter for Alumni, evolve students in other AIESEC activities

such as internal trainings, global villages, or make a special AIESEC presentation for the teachers.

Media Communication Plan: The LC could plan all the “mediable” activities during the year and

prepare releases, or start to have contact with the media before the process in order to delivery

better news in the better places and to make more people aware of AIESEC activities. It is really

simple once you have goals, contacts (that must be constantly updated) and a timeline.

The Internal Communication Plan: The same way you have to worry about your external public you

have to do the same with the internal one. Members need to know what happens in the

organization. Plan this process is really simple, all you need to do is see the tools you already have

and make it become efficient and the ones that you don’t have implement. After that define what

kind of information will be communicated and if it will be trough campaigns or the tools your LC

have.

Internal Communication

Sometimes we are just so worried about the message

we want to communicate to the external environment that we

forget the role that the members have in this process. They are

the ones who will communicate, so its relevant that they know

what is happening inside the organization. Because if you know

the information, you know better about the organization, and

you know better how to pass it. The communication is a potent

tool also to motivate the membership, sometimes people

doesn’t know the opportunities that they have access, or is not

aware of how good his LC is or the results it have achieved.

There are two main ways to work in this.

Endomarketing: The endomarketing is the marketing that you generally have to the external public,

but for the internal one, is like advertise but inside. The main tool used is the internal campaigns.

Once you have a clear message that you want to communicate during a specific period you can use a

campaign as tool to promote intensively an idea, opportunity or information. For Example, the LC

election process will start and you want to stimulate people to apply to EB position. You can develop

a campaign sharing the Experience of the members of the EB, or showing all the learning points the

person will have as an EB Member, and this campaign will be run during the applications period.

Internal Communication Flow: This one is more related with the efficiency which you use the

communication tools. And how you manage the information inside of your LC, the accountability

system is related to that and also the knowledge management process. Members generally fell really

motivated once they know what happens in the LC, it’s related to the idea of empowerment and

participation, the ownership grows once you have more info.

Media Communication

Work with media is something basic for any

Communication department. In an organization which the

institutional promotion is so relevant, the media process is

mandatory, once it is the best way to pass an idea more

complete, without a costs and that look more trustable and

relevant. Although it always seemed extremely complicated,

actually it is really simple to contact the media, because they are constantly looking for news and the

try to let the communication channels with then as open as possible. To work with media are two

main activities you must run.

Press Process: For work with media there’s a basic routine which every LC must have related to that.

It’s really simple once you start to doing, and the results come really fast. All you have to do is, based

on your media plan, and with a list of contacts of the media chosen as more efficient to

communicate the info you want to communicate start to build a release, send it to the media, call

and give all the follow up process. After that you need to track were you appear and make the

clipping process.

Relationship with Media: Keep a good relationship with a journalist is as relevant as keep with a

company, and the process is not that different. First you can use tools such as press kits to approach

them, is important that once you have the first contact with some relevant media you keep that

constantly. For example one column responsible that always talk about themes related to AIESEC is

someone that could also open other doors for other medias.

Promotional Communication

From all the Communications process the promotional one is the

more explicit and the one who have most different activities.

Promotion is the way work to sell your products. Once AIESEC

product is really complex sometimes it’s really hard to communicate

it in the normal promotional channels. AIESEC also generally don´t

have too much money to use all the promotional tools so creativity is

a fundamental weapon to be used in promotional activities.

Campaigns: The campaigns are the main tools to promote something, understand the campaign

basic flow, how to define goals, targets, select the best tools and put into practice. The external

campaigns have the same principle of the internal ones. The only difference is that the

communication channels are not so available, so the planning process must be really accurate.

Continuous Promotion: The Continuous Promotion is directly related to put into practice the

Stakeholder communication plan. There is no mystery once you had planned it well. The secret is to

use a lot of different promotion tools to your stakeholder not to forget about you, or even to notice

you. The only thing to take care is to not become inconvenient or boring.

Events: The events are the most known and frequent used way to promote AIESEC. Basically you

have to take care about the logistical part, the content, the promotion of the event (and it must be

done really carefully once you have some events for some specific targets) and the follow up. Events

are a good way to run learning activities, promotion, media appearance and relationship build

together in the same pack.

Promotional Material: The most “touchable” way to promote, the promotional material is the most

used, and unfortunately the one with the worst relative return when its bad used. Basic step of any

promotion, It is the one who officially announce “hey! We are here!!!”. The most common ones are

Poster, Flyers, Folders, Letters, Reports, Outdoors and any other printed material that abuses of

visual resources (or not).

Web Promotion: On these days internet is a basic resource for promotion. A lot of alternative tools

can be used such as videos, banners, spams, network websites, groups, research tools, blogs, and

your own website. Is the first place where people search for information, and were you can put the

information more complete. But, also, internet is a way to risk, once any kind of information is

available, and bad promotion also can help. Example: Type in you tube AIESEC, you will see the worst

videos ever, such as parties, rollcalls and totally random stuff.

Brand Management

Our Brand is the main way of how we show us for the external environment. The Brand is

much more than a logo is a philosophy that the entire organization must be aware to deliver an only

message independent of where it came from. In AIESEC for the brand be well managed everybody

must be aware of it. So there’s some basic process that must be delivered related to the brand

promise.

Brand Education: All members must understand how AIESEC must be positioning. So it’s critical to

educate them since they joined AIESEC, and with different tools. Sessions, dynamics, sales training,

everything could be used as efficient ways to promote inside the membership the consciousness

related to our Brand. Have these knowledge is something that must be required for go on in any

AIESEC Stage.

Brand Implementation: This is directly related to the idea of being a Brand Guardian. The

implementation of the brand is the work done by the entire LC to have all its activities brand aligned.

This means that for example, an LCP must take into consideration in all his decision if its brand

aligned. Once the Brand XP is directly related to the AIESEC Way be brand aligned means be Overall

AIESEC aligned. Example: ER must take care about the kind of company which they are related, and

the products they develop. The Brand implementation is also the activities that the LC develop that

could leverage the Brand awareness inside or outside the LC.

Brand Audit: Once your brand implementation Process have started you must seen the efficiency of

this process. So the audit is away to evaluated how your implementation is evolving. The main tools

used for it is researches, application of questionnaires and other alternative evaluation tools.